ENG
In the Thresholds Breached installation, electronic-sculptural units try to establish a cybernetic loop as environment-responsive agents exhibiting “intelligent” behaviour through mutual perception and responsiveness. The units that form the performative energy-communication entanglement are inspired by the robust and energy-efficient experiments of BEAM robotics and early analogue neural networks.
Each unit consists of several layers of electronic biomimetic neurons, light sensors, solar cells and motors and is trained directly on environmental signals. In the dim installation environment, their primary information about the world outside is the light emitted by the other units. At the same time, they are powered by solar energy and respond through light pulses and movements themselves. While exploring their environment and adapting their behaviour to access sufficient energy supply, the units operate in conjunction with each other – at the level of energy, signals as well as the timing of transmissions.
The loop which develops during the duration of the exhibition may perhaps lead to a certain degree of energetic altruism at the level of behaviour, which would allow the constant circulation of resources to maintain the balance upon which the individual functioning of each of them ultimately depends. As exhibition visitors, we encounter a system that simultaneously functions as a simplified model of exchanges in enclosed ecosystems while at the same time, in the context of cultural production, the network might seem unproductive, alien and even redundant, as it adapts only to maintain its own requirements and operation. As we are observing the situation, we introduce new signals and energy and, while deciphering the surroundings and orientating ourselves in the space, disrupt the equilibrium, which needs to be established anew once we depart.
Technical support: Gregor Krpič, Tomo Per, Matic Potočnik
Advising: Maja Burja, Benjamin Fele
SLO
V instalaciji Pragovi prečeni, elektronsko-skulpturalne enote preko medsebojne zaznave in odzivanja poskušajo vzpostaviti kibernetsko zanko kot okoljsko odzivni agenti, ki izkazujejo »inteligentno« vedenje. Enote, ki tvorijo performativni energetsko-komunikacijski preplet, so zasnovane po navdihu odpornih in energetsko unčinkovitih eksperimentov BEAM robotike in zgodnjih analognih nevronskih mrež.
Vsako enoto sestavlja več nivojev elektronskih biomimetičnih nevronov, svetlobni senzorji, sončne celice in motorji, učijo pa se neposredno na signalih iz okolja. V temnem instalacijskem okolju, je njihova osnovna informacija o svetu zunaj njih svetloba, ki jo oddajajo preostale enote, ob tem pa se napajajo s solarno energijo in tudi same odzivajo preko svetlobnih pulzov in gibanja. Tekom spoznavanja okolja in prilagajanja svojega vedenja, da bi prišle do zadostne količine energije, enote delujejo v medsebojni povezavi – na ravni energije, signalov in tempiranja prenosov.
Zanka, ki se tekom razstave oblikuje povsem nenadzorovano, morda pripelje do določene stopnje energetskega altruizma na ravni vedenja, ki bi omogočilo, da viri nenehno krožijo in vzdržujejo ravnovesje, od katerega je odvisno tudi delovanje vsake od njih kot posameznice. Kot obiskovalci se na razstavi srečamo s sistemom, ki obenem deluje kot poenostavljen model izmenjav v zaprtih ekosistemih, hkrati pa se nam v okvirih kulturne produkcije povezava zdi neproduktivna, tuja in celo odvečna, saj se prilagaja zgolj za vzdrževanje svojih lastnih pogojev in delovanja. Ob opazovanju situacije vanjo vnesemo nove signale in energijo in medtem, ko razbiramo svojo okolico in se orientiramo po prostoru, prekinemo ravnovesje, ki se mora po našem odhodu vzpostaviti znova.
Tehnična podpora: Gregor Krpič, Tomo Per, Matic Potočnik
Svetovanje: Maja Burja, Benjamin Fele